Language Acquisition
There are many theories related to how people speak and learn language and with these theories, there is also a constant debate, to which each theory has a place, on whether people’s brains are either born blank or with no ROR knowledge, or their brains have inbuilt systems that help them to learn. This debate is coined the ‘Nature vs.. Nurture’ debate. Out of these theories, there are three main theories which group theorists together: Nativity: Behaviorism; and Social constructivism (Encyclopedia of Children’s Health. (2014), Pinker, S. 1994)). Natives theorists hypothesize that people are born with the innate ability to learn language, that it is part of their genetic makeup and that “language acquisition occurs as a natural part of the human Kyle. A. , Lambert, Matthew. C. (2014)). Behaviorism is the theory of ‘tabular Rasa’ or ‘blank slate’ in English. Behaviorist’s believe that people are born without anything in their minds, it is the environment, and everyone else around them, that determines who they are, how they behave and the things they learn.
Social Constructivism is in between the other theories as it is a theory with views from both ends of the spectrum, that people cannot learn only on the basis that they are empty and everyone else fills the void nor can they learn everything themselves (Class Notes. (2013), University of California Berkeley. (2014)). NOAA Chomsky was a natives, and therefore on the side of nature, and a professor of linguistics. He believed and argued the theory’ that language acquisition is an innate ability of the brain. (MIT Linguistics: Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. (No Date), Elizabeth Cerebrate. 1999)). He named this the LAD, the Language Acquisition Device. He theorists that babies are born with “universal grammar” making them receptive to “common features of all languages… [and] because of this hardwired background in grammar, children easily pick up a language when they are exposed to its particular grammar. Chomsky theory was based on many observations made on children and their language acquisition skills; “The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children, even though different children experience very different environments. ; “Chi Alden’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures. “; “Children GE nearly acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly. “; “Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own language. These new languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when they are created in efferent cultures. ” These observations do weight for Chomsky theory, although Burghs Frederic Skinners vision will say differently. B. F. Skinner was a behaviorism and on the side of nurture.
He believed that the brain “studied observable behavior” rather than internal mental events and thought that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes and consequences of actions. He named this theory Operant Conditioning. He had found that through reinforcement, behaviors tend to b e repeated or strengthened, but the behaviors that were not reinforced ere extinguished or weakened. To prove his theory he conducted experiments and he was most famous for his “Skinner BOW. This experiment consisted of rats and a specialized box big enough for the rats. The box had a food cup for the reward and a lever.
When the lever was pressed, some pellets would fall into the food cup. Skinner would place a hungry rat in the box and await it’s accidental push of the lever. It was after a few accidental knocks did Skinner see progress. Every time the rat was placed into the box it began to realism that if it pressed the lever, it would be rewarded with food. For his theory, Skinner identified three types of responses that can follow behavior: Neutral operates, reinforces and punisher. Neutral operates are the “responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated. Whereas reinforces are the responses to the environment which increase the chance of the behavior being repeated and the punisher are the responses to the environment which decrease the chance of the behavior being repeated. (Mcleod, Saul. (2014)). Although these two theories of learning are very legible, there isn’t any definitive evidence that one theory is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but having put them side by side, it becomes clear that parts of Behaviorism and Nativity theories show that people do can learn from both Of them. This is where the works of Jerome Burner comes into o the equation.
Jerome Burner is a Social Constructivist and his theories sit in the middle of the nature vs.. Nurture debate. His main theory was the LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) and this “refers to the importance of a child’s social support network, which works in conjunction with innate exchanges to encourage or suppress language development. ” According to this model, every child has one and it is particularly during the years of the language explosion, which is around the ages of 2 5 years, that the differences in the LASS significantly explain differences in language acquisition.
A part of the LASS is the ‘Spiral Curriculum’ which Burner uses to explain how the most effective learning occurs. The Spiral Curriculum is where learning comes about in smaller “chunks” where the children will learn smaller portions of a subject and when he topic is revisited, it will go a little more indented. This theory “mimics” how people naturally learn language. For example, children do not learn their first word just in one day. They learn it by it being repeated and revisited.
They will hear the word and it will register but not Stay with them, then they hear it again and hear the sounds. It will be said again and again (going around in a spiral) where the child will hear the word and will learn something new with it, whether the meaning of it, or what it is or even how to say it (Paul. (2009)). Each theory has its differences and similarities with another and more than just one theory of learning is shown in everyday life.
